Abstract: A method and system include compatibly interfacing a suitably adapted central switch in a computer network virtualization environment to one or more user-end peripheral device(s) to dispense with a need for a user-end thin client. The method and system also include appropriately routing a data associated with a direct and exclusive communication between a virtual machine on a host server including a number of virtual machines and the one or more user-end peripheral device(s) using the central switch.

Abstract: A technique is described for managing processor (CPU) resources in a host having virtual machines (VMs) executed thereon. A target size of a VM is determined based on its demand and CPU entitlement. If the VM's current size exceeds the target size, the technique dynamically changes the size of a VM in the host by increasing or decreasing the number of virtual CPUs available to the VM. To “deactivate” virtual CPUs, a high-priority balloon thread is launched and pinned to one of the virtual CPUs targeted for deactivation, and the underlying hypervisor deschedules execution of the virtual CPU accordingly. To “activate” virtual CPUs, the number of virtual CPUs, the launched balloon thread may be killed.

Abstract: Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture are disclosed to measure compliance of a virtual computing environment. An example method disclosed herein includes determining, with a processor, a maximum surprisal value of a policy to be enforced on a computing resource in a computing environment, the maximum surprisal value corresponding to a probability of the computing resource being in-compliance with the policy without testing the computing resource with respect to the policy, determining a current surprisal value of the computing resource with respect to the policy based on knowledge of at least one condition of policy being at least one of satisfied by or inapplicable to the computing resource, and determining a compliance score of the computing resource with respect to the policy based on the maximum surprisal value of the policy and the current surprisal value of the computing resource with respect to the policy.

Abstract: Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture are disclosed to assess compliance of a virtual computing environment. An example method disclosed herein to assess compliance of computing resources of a computing environment includes monitoring for an occurrence of a change in a computing resource in the computing environment, and in response to detecting the occurrence and without waiting for batch testing, assessing compliance of the computing resource with a compliance policy.

Abstract: Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture are disclosed to identify priorities of compliance assessment results of a virtual computing environment. An example method disclosed herein to identify priorities for defects includes associating, with a processor, a first defect with an asset class and a repair action, the first defect indicative of a computing resource being out of compliance with a policy, determining, with the processor, a priority for the defect based on past repair actions performed to correct past defects corresponding to the same asset class, and displaying the defect in rank order with a plurality of other defects based on the priority.

Abstract: A disclosed method includes distinguishing static and dynamic persistent data, copying the static persistent data at the source data store to the destination data store on a basis of frequencies of updates, copying the dynamic persistent data to the destination data store, updating a bitmap data structure during the copying of the dynamic persistent data to indicate which blocks of the dynamic persistent data have been modified during the copying step, identifying the blocks that have been modified during the copying step using the bitmap data structure, and iteratively copying the identified blocks to the destination data store. The method may further include determining when the number of the identified blocks is below a predetermined threshold and suspending the virtual machine prior to the next copying step.

Abstract: Embodiments associate software applications with computing resources based on failure correlation information and an anti-affinity rule. An anti-affinity rule indicates that a first software application is to be separated from a second software application during execution. A management device determines failure correlations between a first computing resource that is associated with the first software application and a plurality of computing resources other than the first computing resource. The management device selects the computing resource that corresponds to the lowest failure correlation and associates the second software application with the selected computing resource based on the anti-affinity rule.

Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention is a system including: (a) plural virtualization systems configured in a cluster; (b) storage accessible to each virtualization system of the cluster, wherein for each virtual machine operative in a virtualization system of the cluster, the storage maintains a representation of virtual machine state that includes at least a description of a hardware system virtualized and an image of virtualized memory state for the virtual machine; and (c) a failover system that, responsive to an interruption of, or on, a particular one of the virtualization systems, transitions at least one affected virtual machine to another virtualization system of the cluster and resumes computations of the transitioned virtual machine based on state encoded by a corresponding one of the virtual machine states represented in the storage.

Abstract: A server accesses a previous frame of an image in a video and obtains hash values for each pixel in the previous frame and creates a hash map that stores each of the hash values. The server receives a current frame of the image and separates the current frame into a plurality of current blocks of pixels. The server calculates, using a hash function, a hash value for each of the current blocks of pixels. The server compares the hash values in the hash map with the hash values associated with the current frame and identifies a hash value in the hash map that matches a hash value in the current frame. The server compresses the current frame for transmission to a client using the identified matching hash values and pre-calculates a new hash map based on the current frame for use in compressing a next frame of the video.

Abstract: Particular embodiments establish static redirection of a function that is a member of a class to an alternate implementation of the function. A software tool executing on a computer server receives an executable file for an application and a location for an alternate implementation of the function. The function may be written in Objective C. The software tool can be used to locate a structure for the function by traversing serialized metadata in the executable file. The software tool can then be used to modify the metadata in the executable file by updating the value of a selector indicating the location of a current implementation of the function to indicate a location of the alternate implementation. The selector may be included in a element of the structure for the class method. Finally, the application may provide the modified executable file for installation on client devices.

Abstract: Left- and right-click buttons of a virtual touchpad each have two modes, a “click” mode and an “on/off” mode. In “click” mode, touching a finger to the left- or right-click button triggers a mouse button down event while releasing a finger from the button triggers a mouse button up event. In “on/off” mode, the left- and right-click buttons each have two states, “on” and “off.” If the current state of the left- or right-click button is “off,” then touching the button triggers the mouse button down event, while releasing the button changes the state of the button to “on” but does not trigger any mouse events. Conversely, if the current state of the left- or right-click button is “on,” then touching the button does not trigger any mouse events, but releasing the button thereafter changes the state of the button to “off” and triggers the mouse button up event.

Abstract: In one embodiment a method for storing a remote desktop GUI image block in a cache including a plurality of persistence levels is described. The method is comprised of maintaining each persistence level in the plurality of persistence levels; identifying an event associated with an update to the remote desktop GUI; determining a context for the event; selecting one of the persistence levels for the event based on the context; and storing an image block corresponding to the update in the selected one of the persistence levels.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and computer programs are provided for measuring the performance of a remote display. One method includes an operation for embedding in display frames a respective frame identifier and a respective frame picture. The respective frame picture is placed in a respective region that depends of the value of the respective frame identifier. Additionally, the method includes operations for sending the plurality of display frames to a remote client, and for extracting each received frame picture from the respective region of each received display frame at the remote client based on the received frame identifier. The received frame quality is calculated for each received display frame based on the comparison of the extracted received frame picture with the respective frame picture. Further, the method includes an operation for calculating a remote display quality for the remote client based on the calculated received frame quality for the received display frames.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and computer programs are provided for measuring the performance of display images received on a remote computer display. One method includes an operation for detecting calls from an application to an application programming interface (API), which is provided for rendering images on a display image, each call causing an update of the display image. Further, the method includes an operation for embedding data for measuring performance in display frames of the display image based on the detecting. The embedding results in modified displayed frames with respective data for measuring performance. The modified displayed frames are transmitted to a remote client, which results in received modified display frames having respective received data for measuring the performance. In addition, the method includes an operation for calculating the remote display quality for the given application based on the received modified display frames and the respective received data for measuring performance.

Abstract: In one example, a method is provided for a computing device to facilitate testing of an electronic apparatus. The method includes receiving a request from an apparatus coupled to a network to which the computing device is also coupled. The method further includes retrieving a command for a robot controlled by the computing device from the request, and configuring the robot to physically interface with the electronic apparatus to perform one or more tests according to the command.

Abstract: A system that includes a memory and processor is provided. The processor is programmed to receive input data, determine that the input data is tainted, store the tainted input data in a location in the memory, and based on storing the tainted input data in the location, label the location as a tainted location. The processor is further programmed to assign a triggering event to the tainted location such that an action is initiated when the triggering event has occurred.

Abstract: A virtualization system supports secure, controlled execution of application programs within virtual machines. The virtual machine encapsulates a virtual hardware platform and guest operating system executable with respect to the virtual hardware platform to provide a program execution space within the virtual machine. An application program, requiring license control data to enable execution of the application program, is provided within the program execution space for execution within the virtual machine. A data store providing storage of encrypted policy control information and the license control data is provided external to the virtual machine. The data store is accessed through a virtualization system including a policy controller that is selectively responsive to a request received from the virtual machine to retrieve the license control data dependent on an evaluation of the encrypted policy control information.

Abstract: A virtualized computer system employs a virtual disk with a space efficient (SE) format to store data for virtual machines running therein. The SE format allows for defragmentation at a fine-grained level, where unused, stale, and zero blocks are moved to the end of the virtual disk so that the virtual disk may be truncated and space reclaimed by the underlying storage system as part of a special defragmentation process.

Abstract: Completion interrupts corresponding to I/O requests issued by a virtual machine guest, which runs on a host platform, are virtualized in such a way that I/O completion interrupts to the requesting guest are delivered no faster than it can stably handle them, but, when possible, faster than the nominal speed of a virtual device to which a virtual machine addresses the I/O request. In general, completion events received from the host platform in response to guest I/O requests are examined with respect to time. If enough time has passed that the virtual device would normally have completed the I/O request, then the completion interrupt is delivered to the guest. If the nominal time has not elapsed, however, the invention enqueues and time-stamps the event and delivers it at the earliest of a) the normal maturity time, or b) at a safepoint.

Abstract: A resource management system for a virtual machine computing environment includes a software component that optimizes capacity between server clusters or groups by monitoring the capacity of server clusters or groups and automatically adding and removing host systems to and from server clusters or groups. The software component may be implemented at a server cluster management level to monitor and execute host system moves between server clusters and/or at a higher level in the resource management hierarchy. At the higher level, the software component is configured to monitor and execute host system moves between sets of server clusters being managed by different server cluster management agents.